Deli / Prepared Foods

Pinnacle Foods Group, LLC has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Birds Eye Foods, Inc. from a holding company controlled by Vestar Capital Partners, Pro-Fac Cooperative and Birds Eye management in a deal valued at $1.3 billion.

Not content with offering a wide selection of shelf-stable pan-Asian foods, including All Natural Sauces, Noodles & Sauce, Noodle Bowls, Soup Bowls, Sushi Wraps and Rice Express products, San Rafael, Calif.-based Annie Chun’s, Inc. will branch into the frozen section this spring with two new products: Organic Potstickers and Mini Wontons.

In a year when consumers were looking to cut back anywhere they could, private label made inroads in a lot of categories, but took the biggest slices from segments like baby food and frozen pizza.

Mann Packing Co. is joining forces with Gourmet Garden to offer members of Curves, the largest fitness franchise in the world, on a cross-promotional offer this January and February in western Canada, during which more than 70,000 handouts will be distributed at Curves locations as part of “Member Appreciation Gift Packs.”

Emmy-award winning children’s animated TV series “Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!” has signed on with two new food partners, MaMa Rosa’s refrigerated pizza and First Juice Brand.

A recent HealthFocus International (HFI) study reveals that cutting costs has expanded into higher-income groups, namely, those with annual incomes upward of $75,000.

Roundy’s Supermarkets, Inc. and the Roundy’s Foundation are once again responding to the growing need to feed the hungry in Wisconsin and Minnesota with donations surpassing $80,000 for food banks and meal programs.

Women ages 20 to 30 represent a $54 billion marketing opportunity for packaged goods companies, but their needs and values are vastly different from the generation before them, a new report from Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) has found.